The present invention relates to electric grills which are commonly used to create more healthy meals. Grills of this type commonly separate excess oils and juices from the food being prepared, such that the cooked food has a lower fat and cholesterol content.
Many such grills are well known in the art. These grills typically include a bottom heating surface and an upper heating surface which, when an electric current is introduced, become hot enough to cook various types of food. The top and bottom heating surfaces are commonly connected using a hinge. The food usually rests on the bottom heating surface while the top heating surface, facing the bottom heating surface, is placed on top of the food. The food is thereby cooked on both sides simultaneously, which cuts down on cooking time.
However, an all too common problem occurs when cooking larger food because the top heating surface cannot remain parallel to the bottom heating surface. As a result, the food is cooked unevenly because it is being pinched on one side by the misaligned top heating surface. The grills that attempt to resolve this require the use of springs, or other extraneous techniques and mechanisms, to create a cumbersome and complicated cooking system. Moreover, these past solutions limit movement of the top cooking surface, and thus still create problems when cooking larger food. Additionally, these techniques and systems further limit the various methods of cooking possible on the electric grill.
Other types of electric grills allow for the bottom heating surfaces to be configured on an angle. An angled bottom heating surface allows excess grease, oils and juices to separate from the food being prepared, thus creating a healthier meal. The bottom heating surface, as well as the top heating surface, is usually fixed at a pre-determined angle, or may be limited to adjustment between only two or three pre-specified angles. The constraint on the possible cooking angles severely limits the use of the electric grill.
Most, if not all, of the electric grills are designed such that the top heating surface is attached to the bottom heating surface using a hinge. Thus, the top heating surface can be raised or rotated to be perpendicular to the bottom heating surface. This feature allows the user to easily position the food on the bottom heating surface without interference from the upper surface. In effect, the top heating surface acts only as a secondary cooking surface. Therefore, if the user desires to cook only one side of the food, the top heating surface may remain in its perpendicular position and left unused.
Commonly, when the top heating surface is left in the perpendicular position, the top heating surface is still using electricity and is still creating heat. There is no way to regulate the temperature of the top and bottom heating surfaces individually. This not only wastes energy, but creates a burn risk to a user preparing food product with the grill.
Other electric grills comprise a manual controller such as a cooking timer. The cooking timer usually incorporates a large manual dial or knob which the user can manually set. After a predetermined period of time set by the user, the controller may turn the grill off such that no current is passed through the cooking surfaces, allowing the surfaces to cool.
Despite the electric grills currently in use, there remains a need for a simple and efficient electric grill with improved features.